Animal Crossing: City Folk

"Even better than the first two...... combined!!!"

For those of you that don't know, Animal Crossing is a Virtual Life Simulator in which you are the only human (aside from other players) living in a town completely inhabited by various types of animals. Animal Crossing: City Folk is the third installment in the AC series, following it's first two games, Animal Crossing (Gamecube), and Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo DS).

Graphics 8/10
Although Animal Crossing has never had the greatest graphics, the type of style that it has always used has worked for it. The small-bodied, big-headed characters provides more, as I like to call it, likableness. But even though it has been somewhat of a tradition to keep the graphics like this, I have noticed some somewhat blocky characters, buildings, or other items, that would have looked much better if they had been a little more well-rounded when they should have been.

Gameplay/Controls 9/10
The point of Animal Crossing is very simple, to live your character's life and make everyone's life (including yours) as enjoyable as possible. The controls are simple, just use your Wii Remote to point and click your way around the town and city and choose options from the menus. There is also an option to use a Wii Nunchuck to control your character. In the game, you have the have the options to do things like fishing, bug catching, and even shooting balloons to obtain items. (Who keeps sending those anyway?) There is also a new city in the game. A place where you can do many of the things that you could do in the previous games, and also some new improvements; such as the theater and even a shoe shining.

Story 7/10
There isn't much of a story to ACCF, only a human moving to an animal-inhabited town.

Replayability 10/10
There is so much you can do in the big ol' world of Animal Crossing: City Folk. There are more than three times as many items to collect as the first two games, and twice as many things to do. Collecting every single item in the game has to offer would require time, patience, determination, and a whole lotta bells. (The currency used by the people of AC) There is also the option to go online and play with up to three other people, allowing you to trade items, improve each other's towns, and even just hang out.

Overall 9/10
This is an excellent game for those of you that enjoy relaxing games; it is an absolute buy. But if you enjoy more hardcore games, I would still give serious consideration to at least renting this game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/26/08

Game Release: Animal Crossing: City Folk (US, 11/16/08)